I'm flying on to Chicago to visit Sherry and Scott Dunne who live on Gages Lake. Later in the month, I'll go to my 50th high school reunion in Hinsdale IL. We don't have any ambitious plans while I'm here. Sherry and Scott are great cooks and I'll enjoy some meals from their grill besides relaxing on their pontoon boat for sunset cruises and at their fire pit after dark.

Scott invited the Acevedo family to a pizza party tonight to welcome them to Chicago for the wedding that's coming up this weekend. Since it was Halloween, Chris's niece Cora went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.
Pictured are Amanda's in-laws, Millie and Joe Acevedo from Orlando FL.
Also Chris's brother Michael and his daughter Cora.

Robert of Tree Care Solutions arrived with his crew at 7 AM to remove the log that's been hanging above the lawn in a huge tree since the storm. The branch had blown from an adjacent oak tree and was looming precariously above the Dunne driveway. There was also another branch snapped off and hanging in the tree next to it.
The entire story is told in photos.

A fierce storm kicked up across the lake at 8 AM. The winds were up to 80 miles an hour and the whitecaps were high. At first I thought it was a tornado because it came out of nowhere. In its wake, the storm left downed trees and branches everywhere. This one was termed a derecho, a widespread and long-lived, violent, straight-line windstorm that is associated with a fast-moving band of severe thunderstorms in the form of a squall line. The papers said it originated in Nebraska and ended mid-afternoon in Pennsylvania.
I watched the pier...

This morning we made preparations for the 4th of July celebration tomorrow. This afternoon Scott's nephew Mike, wife Linda, and three sons arrived from St. Louis.
Tonight--a spectacular experience witnessing Chris Acevedo ask Amanda Dunne for her hand in marriage on the 40th anniversary of her parents. I witnessed the proposal from the deck just as I witnessed Scott and Linn's wedding in Lake Forest IL in 1971.

It was a long trip on a red-eye flight from Guayaquil to Chicago O'Hare but I'm here. I gifted my four favorite men with Panama hats: Scott, Chris, George, and Boz. See photos. After spending the morning catching up with Amanda and Scott Dunne, my hosts, they left me to rest while they went to a wedding in Arlington Heights.

Neither Scott nor Amanda had to work today since it's Saturday. We had a leisurely visit over coffee and the crossword puzzle. Then they had to go shopping because they've invited friends to the house tonight for wings and wackiness around the fireplace. I will finally get to meet Amanda's beau, Chris Acevedo.
Since it was 10 degrees outside, I was glad to be home with the hosts greeting all the guests. I was happy to see all of Scott's neighbors again.

Amanda and I went shopping all day. We caught up on what is happening in her life now that she is living with Chris Acevedo in an apartment in Chicago. Of course we had our bittersweet moments reminiscing about her wonderful mother and my good friend since the 60s, Linda Marie Gall Dunne.
Amanda and I had dinner at Jesse Oaks where we often went on Friday with Linn.

Arrive Milwaukee 28 degrees.
Rent car, drive to Gages Lake IL via Racine. Stopped at O and H Danish Bakery for kringle, a specialty coffee cake.
Evening with Scott at his job at Gurnee School District 56. On the way home we stopped for a drink at Jesse Oaks